Cool Comforts

Winter or summer, a visit to the NSW Snowy Mountains is just the tonic.

Balletic flicks of the wrist send the nylon line dancing on top of the stream. Under a cloudless sky, Thredbo River sparkles like a well-cut diamond. Beneath the surface, we’re hoping to tempt some of the freshwater trout that call the river home.

There’s barely a breeze to rustle the grass tufts and gum trees on the bank opposite, at the foot of the Ramshead Range. We’re suited up in waders, looking very much the part despite this being my husband’s and my first attempt at fly fishing. For our guide, Craig Daly – or ‘Daf’ as he prefers – casting is as natural as breathing. He fell into guiding in the Snowy Mountains 23 years ago after doing it during a stint alternating ski seasons with fishing trips in the USA.

“You’ve seen Brad Pitt do it on A River Runs Through It?” Daf guesses, after we meet him in the car park at the Skitube Alpine Railway. It’s the only available reference I have. For my husband, it was watching the Australian series, A River Somewhere with Rob Sitch, about 20 years ago, that planted the seed.

“The whole art of fly fishing is the cast,” explains Daf, undeterred by our newbie status. “If you can cast more skilfully than other people then you’ll definitely catch more fish.

Over a couple of hours we take turns practising our cast under Daf’s expert eye then wade further up the lake to try our luck at luring a fish.

A playful platypus is ultimately what snags our attention in the glass-clear lake. Emerging from her burrow in the banks, she shimmies and pops up her beak before diving back below, her glossy fur shining in the sun. Not just once or twice, but continuously for almost half an hour. We don’t catch a single fish, but this close encounter – and the dose of mindfulness in nature – is a bountiful catch in my eyes. 

As someone who can count visits to the snow on one hand, the Snowy Mountains always held more allure to me for its ‘off season’. A time when I imagined horses galloping down forested slopes, Akubra-clad hikers conquering alpine peaks, and the whole scene playing out like The Man From Snowy River. But my true motivation lay in where we checked into after the two-hour drive from Canberra airport.

>This story first appeared in Travel + Luxury (The Weekend Australian), 26 January 2025. Continue reading on the PDF.